The latest on California politics and government

September 6, 2011

Members of the Legislature are usually associated with a certain amount of decorum. Suits and ties. Parliamentary procedures. That kind of thing.

But seven freshmen Assembly members are evoking a different image with an invitation, shown below, that they're circulating for an end-of-session party Wednesday at Simon's. Think rappers and low-riders, not speakers and pro tems.

The Assembly members -- all Democrats and all Latinos -- call themselves the "D7 crew." They include Luis Alejo of Salinas, Michael Allen of Santa Rosa, Nora Campos of San Jose, Roger Hernández of West Covina, Ben Hueso of Chula Vista, Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens and Henry T. Perea of Fresno.

The D stands for Democrat, Perea said. The similarity of the group's name to D12 -- a Detroit rap group known for misogynistic and violent lyrics -- is pure coincidence. Perea said he had never heard of D12.

Still, some in the Capitol community are saying the flyer evokes negative stereotypes of Latinos. Perea said that wasn't the point at all.

"The seven of us are all Latino. We all come from diverse backgrounds in different parts of the state," Perea said. "As we were talking about doing an end-of-session bash, and remembering where we came from, we started talking about the things we saw as we grew up. So that's really all it is."